A US federal appeals court has reversed a series of Government decisions that had made abortion-inducing drugs ever more easily available over the last few years.
In its order, a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit partly overruled Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas, who last week declared that the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone in 2000 was not valid, in essence saying that the drug should be pulled from the market.
But the appellate court did re-apply some restrictions on the drugs which had been lifted over the last few years, such as requiring that the pill be prescribed only by doctors, approving the pill for use only up to 7 weeks into pregnancy instead of ten, and requiring it to be picked up from a medical clinic or pharmacy in person rather than allowing it be mailed to patients.
The court’s ruling is an interim order until the full case is heard on its merits.
A California Court ruled that an Evangelical church must pay $1.2 million in fines, including interest, for violating public health orders during the COVID-19 pandemic emergency.
Professor Jay Bhattacharya of Stanford University’s Medical School condemned the ruling. He said in a tweet: “Throughout the pandemic, California state courts have flouted the 1st amendment right to freedom of worship, & ignored evidence-based medicine. This punitive ruling is outrageous, which the church will certainly appeal”.
Judge Evette Pennypacker rejected the church’s argument that the public health officer’s orders prevented it from exercising its religious freedom or violated the Constitution.
The church routinely held large, indoor unmasked services during the coronavirus pandemic despite the health orders that applied to every entity in the county.
The Office of the County Counsel said that wearing a mask while worshiping is is “a simple, unobtrusive, giving way to protect others while still exercising your right to religious freedom”.
“Unfortunately, Defendants repeatedly refused to model, much less, enforce this gesture. Instead, they repeatedly flouted their refusal to comply with the Public Health Orders and urged others to do so ‘who cares what the cost,’ including death.”
Delegates at the Irish National Teachers’ Organisation (INTO) conference have characterised as “insensitive” the opposition by a Catholic school management body to teaching children about transgender ideology. The INTO has previously produced videos in support of such ideology.
The Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) said any move to teach primary pupils about transgenderism “would be counterproductive, generating unnecessary divisions in school communities where none now exists”. Gender ideology says that your ‘gender’ might be different from your biological sex. It can result in minors being given puberty blockers and sex hormones, and in some cases operations to remove organs such as breasts.
The CPSMA said that sometimes there is a ‘contagion’ effect as sometimes several children in the same classroom declare themselves to be transgender at the same time.
Delegates at the INTO’s annual congress in Killarney “condemned” these comments and welcomed the “timely review” of the 20-year-old relationships and sexual education curriculum which may result in gender ideology being taught.
INTO General Secretary John Boyle said, “Schools should and must be inclusive to all. As a union, we are, and will remain an unapologetic advocate for equality”.
https://www.irishtimes.com/ireland/education/2023/04/12/union-criticises-insensitive-opposition-to-teaching-of-gender-identity-in-primary-schools/
A US federal appeals court has reversed a series of Government decisions that had made abortion drugs more easily available over the last few years.
In its order, a three-judge panel for the Fifth Circuit partly overruled Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas, who last week declared that the Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone in 2000 was not valid, in essence saying that the drug should be pulled from the market.
But the appellate court did re-apply some restrictions on the drugs which had been lifted over the last few years, such as requiring that the pill be prescribed only by doctors, approving the pill for use only up to 7 weeks into pregnancy instead of ten, and requiring it to be picked up from a medical clinic or pharmacy in person rather than allowing it be mailed to patients.
The court’s ruling is an interim order until the full case was heard on its merits.
The White House has confirmed that President Joseph Biden will visit the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock, better known as the Knock Shrine, during his trip to Co Mayo later this week.
On Friday, Biden’s visit to the Knock Shrine will the first engagement of the final day of his four-day visit.
Fr Richard Gibbons, parish priest and rector of Knock Shrine, said Biden’s stop-off would “probably be the most private element of his visit to Ireland”. The priest said that because of the US president’s “commitment to his faith”, he wanted stop off at Knock and “say a private prayer”.
Biden will be gifted a stone from the gable wall of the Knock chapel where the apparition of Mary occurred in 1879, Fr Gibbons said.
The final engagement of Biden’s trip will be Friday evening’s public address in front of St Muredach’s Cathedral, the cathedral church of the Catholic Diocese of Killala, a church his ancestor Edward Blewitt sold 27,000 bricks to in the 1820s that helped fund the cost of his emigration to the US in 1851.
A new document revealed that an FBI office used at least one undercover agent to obtain information about traditionalist Catholics, said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who chairs the House Subcommittee on the Weaponization of the Federal Government.
In response to its inquiry, the committee announced it received from the FBI a heavily redacted 18-page document that uncovered limited information about the agency’s efforts to investigate a supposed link between traditionalist Catholics and “the far-right white nationalist movement.”
The committee had requested information following the leak of an internal memo dated Jan. 23 that originated from the FBI’s Richmond division. The memo, which the FBI later retracted, called for such investigations within traditionalist Catholic communities.
Titled “Interest of Racially or Ethnically Motivated Violent Extremists in Radical-Traditionalist Catholic Ideology Almost Certainly Presents New Mitigation Opportunities,” the memo singles out Catholics who are interested in the Traditional Latin Mass as potentially linked to violent extremist groups.
In the six months after the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade abortion regime, there were about 32,000 fewer abortions than expected in the United States, according to a new analysis.
There were about 5,000 fewer legal abortions each month, on average, than there were in the months before the ruling – a drop of about 6%.
In April and May, there were an average of about 82,000 abortions each month, according to the analysis. From July through December, that fell to an average of 77,000 abortions per month.
The Society of Family Planning, a nonprofit focused on abortion and contraception, sponsored a research effort that collected data from abortion providers nationwide – including clinics, private medical offices, hospitals and virtual clinics. More than 80% of known providers responded.
In the 13 states that enacted bans following the Supreme Court decision, abortions fell more than 95%, with just a few reported each month from July to December. But in the remaining set of states, the average number of abortions ticked up slightly. There were surges in some of those states, including Minnesota and Kansas, that suggest that individuals living in states with more restrictions may travel for care.
A top U.S. military hospital ended its contract with a community of Franciscan friars just before Holy Week, putting a secular firm in charge of Catholic pastoral care, according to the Archdiocese of the Military Services.
Walter Reed National Military Medical Center even issued a “cease and desist order” to the Franciscan Catholic priests and brothers, who have provided pastoral care to the war veterans for nearly two decades.
The Franciscans’ contract for Catholic Pastoral Care was terminated at the end of March, and awarded to a secular defense contracting firm.
Archbishop Timothy P. Broglio, the head of the Military archdiocese, blasted the move saying “It is incomprehensible that essential pastoral care is taken away from the sick and the aged when it was so readily available. This is a classic case where the adage ‘if it is not broken, do not fix it’ applies. I fear that giving a contract to the lowest bidder overlooked the fact that the bidder cannot provide the necessary service. I earnestly hope that this disdain for the sick will be remedied at once and their First Amendment rights will be respected.”
Former Justice Minister, Charlie Flanagan, has described an internal HSE review of its gender identity service for children and young people as “wholly inadequate and insufficient”, and repeated his call for an independent investigation.
The review was commissioned by the HSE’s chief medical officer, Dr Colm Henry, in response to an independent report the English NHS commissioned from UK consultant paediatrician Dr Hilary Cass into its own gender identity service which found multiple failings including high numbers of children being put on puberty blockers.
Following the report by Dr Cass, it was announced that the Tavistock gender clinic in England, to which Irish patients have been referred for psychiatric and psychological assessments, was to close.
The “March 8 Principles”, released on International Women’s Day, are supposed to apply the UN’s interpretation of international human rights law to criminal law.
The underlying idea is that offences related to sex, drug use, HIV, and sexual and reproductive health, as well as homelessness and poverty should all be decriminalised.
Amongst the recommendations it says: “Criminal law may not proscribe abortion. Abortion must be taken entirely out of the purview of the criminal law …”
Likewise, “Consensual sexual conduct, irrespective of the type of sexual activity, the sex/ gender, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression of the people involved or their marital status, may not be criminalised in any circumstances.”
